Customer
Obtain building/electrical permits from the County Building Department. In order to obtain your permit(s) you will be required to provide the County with a Plot Plan (a scaled drawing) of your building site. The Plot Plan must indicate the township, range, section, lot & block, and address if available.
Provide Midstate Electric the following information & fees so we can forward your job to our Distribution Technician:
Membership
- Membership Application and $5 Membership Fee
- A Set-up/Connect Fee of $40
- A deposit may be required. The amount of the deposit will be determined by a credit check run at the time of application for new service or set up a pre-pay account.
Construction
- Plot Plan that shows a trench route and/or placement of structures and meter location (a copy of the one you provided to the County)
- A $200 Estimate/Staking Fee. The fee will be deducted from the total amount owed once the job is complete. If there is no account activity within 6 months of the estimate date, the job work order will be closed, and the $200 will be forfeited.
- Pay construction costs – (must be paid before Midstate can begin)
- Proof of ownership of the property (copy of deed, title, tax statement, etc.)
- Service size must be determined prior to engineering.
Midstate
- Sets up your new account and forwards your application and Plot Plan to the Distribution Technician.
- Distribution Technician will review the Plot Plan and produce a Midstate Engineering Map showing the route for electrical service, the meter location, and general information about the installation.
Please allow 3 working days for Engineering to complete this map.
- If an on-site meeting is required, a Distribution Technician will contact you to schedule this meeting.
- They may also contact you if more than a service extension is required.
- Midstate will mail the Engineering Map, invoice, and any other supporting documents necessary.
Customer
- After you have the Midstate Engineering Map you may proceed with the installation of the trench, conduit, and pull rope. This installation must be in agreement with the trench route and meter location shown on the Midstate Engineering Map. Note: If you deviate from the Midstate Engineering Map, Midstate may be unable to install the service.
- It is your responsibility to obtain your electrical permit and to know the County Regulations.
- You must also call for Underground Locates before you dig: (800) 332-2344. (This is a free service)
- When you have completed the trench and installed the conduit, call (541) 536-2126 ext. 6 to have the trench and conduit inspected. Both must be inspected before Midstate will proceed with construction. If you have used a contractor from our “Area Contractor List,” a trench inspection is not required.
- After the County Electrical Inspector has approved (green tagged) the meter base, call Midstate at
- (541) 536-2126 ext. 6 and Midstate will schedule the new service.
Please allow 5 or more working days for the service installation.
- If you have any questions about the Engineering, contact the Engineering Department at (541) 536-2126 ext. 4. Please wait until you have the Midstate Engineering Map before contacting the Engineering Department. This will allow time for us to become familiar with your installation.
Frequently Asked Questions & General Info About Installing Your New Electric Service
- The preferred location of the meterbase is on the corner of the house nearest the Midstate facilities supplying power. Please refer to sample plot plan.
- Standard service length is:
- 200 amp maximum of 200 feet from transformer
- 400 amp maximum of 250 feet from transformer
- Any service beyond the standard service lengths will require additional engineering and fees.
- The standard service limits include any required road crossings. A road crossing is approximately 60 feet, and Midstate installs wire and conduit for all road crossings.
- If your house is more than 200 feet from the primary facilities you have the following options:
- Install a meter base with breaker or disconnect at 200 feet on a 4×6 pressure-treated post. Then install your own facilities past this point.
- Have the Engineering Department conduct a load study to determine how we can serve your meter base. The cost will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
- All standard services are installed underground. You will need to provide and install the following:
- Install trench from the meter location as shown on the Midstate Engineering Map to your property corner. The route of the trench will be shown on Midstate Engineering Map.
- The trench must be a minimum of 36 inches deep to the top of the conduit. After you install the conduit and Midstate inspects your trench, it must have at least 1 foot of backfill before we can pull wire and connect the service. Backfill must be free of debris and rocks.
- There can be no more than 3 90-degree sweeps in the conduit installation. 1 is required at the meter base, and 1 is required at the pedestal.
- The size of the conduit to be installed will be determined by the length of service or subdivision. Generally it will be 3 or 4 inch schedule 40 grey conduit.
- A pull rope must be installed in the conduit. The pull rope is a minimum ¼ inch poly or similar rope. The rope must extend a minimum of 5 feet from each end of the conduit system.
- All conduit joints must be glued.
- All conduit “sweeps” must have a 36-inch minimum radius.
- You may install water and phone in the same trench as the electric service as long as there is 1 foot of separation between these utilities and the electric conduit. Gas may also be installed in the same trench, but the required separation is 2 feet. The separation may be obtained either vertically or horizontally.
County Numbers for Electrical Permits
Deschutes County: (541) 388-6575
Klamath County: (800) 378-1304
Lake County: (541) 947-6032
La Pine Office: (541) 536-5852